


the same way you have been

by inverse



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 16:47:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6122995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inverse/pseuds/inverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>makoto spends a day out with kisumi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the same way you have been

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lyeon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyeon/gifts).



> for amanda!! i hope you like this :D this isn't my usual genre but kisumako give me this really sweet, laidback, easygoing vibe. DOES THAT EVEN MAKE SENSE.

“Makoto, do you mind if we go inside this store?” Kisumi asked. “I’d like to get a closer look at that bag.”

He didn’t wait for Makoto’s response before stepping indoors, but Makoto said “Okay, sure,” anyway, and promptly followed in Kisumi’s footsteps.

They had been walking around the city like that for several hours already. Three months ago Kisumi had sent Makoto an email saying that he was going to Tokyo for a short holiday during his winter vacation, up from Osaka where he was studying, and asked if Makoto could show him around. Haru could come too, he’d said – he’d be really happy if Haru came along. Makoto forwarded the message to Haru, but never got a response about it. Fast forward some ninety days, and Makoto was there at Shinjuku station picking Kisumi up after an hours-long journey from Iwatobi. Haru was nowhere in sight.

“He’s very busy,” Makoto lied, giving Kisumi a helpless shrug. “Can I help you with your luggage?”

 

*

 

First they made their way to a nearby hotel where Kisumi was staying for the entire duration of four days. Then, after he’d checked in, he told Makoto that he was hungry, and maybe they could go grab some food, saying that he somehow felt restless after riding the shinkansen for hours. He’d intended to walk around the place for the entire day, just to get a feel for the city.

“Do you have an itinerary of some sort? Or are there any landmarks you want to visit?” Makoto asked, but Kisumi only grinned, hands in the pockets of his coat, and said, “Well, nah, don’t you think it’d be more interesting to explore without a plan? I always chance upon accidental finds that way. Ah, but I’d like to visit the Tokyo Skytree tomorrow! Will it be open? What about Ueno Zoo?”

Four hours, one coffeeshop brunch, three transfers on the subway, one shopping street and two malls later, a list of Kisumi’s “accidental finds”: two T-shirts, a sweater, a pair of teal skinny jeans, a multipurpose card carrier, a paper bag full of stationery, hairspray, limited edition snacks, some extremely useless iPhone gadgets, and several mascot keychains. Makoto came to the conclusion that they were probably going to shop the day away, with the weekend reserved for sightseeing. Juggling some of Kisumi’s shopping bags, he checked his phone again for a reply from Haru in response to a text that he’d sent a couple of hours ago, saying that he and Kisumi were already wandering around the city, and would he care to join them just for a while?

There was a reply, one that had nothing to do with the topic that Makoto had broached: “did u take my politics txtbk by accident when we met last week for dinner? urgent. need for assignment.”

“Makoto,” Kisumi called then, stepping out from behind the curtain of a changing room, “Makoto! Does this look good?” he asked, gesturing at the green plaid shirt he was wearing.

“I thought the red one suited you better,” Makoto replied, wondering how someone could fail to notice a missing textbook for over a week and thought about just how obnoxiously stubborn Haru could get.

Kisumi frowned as he watched Makoto fiddle with his phone, then said, “Makoto, are you still trying to get Haru to come down and meet me?” At that point his puzzled frown turned into a pout – “Don’t worry, it’s really not necessary! I was joking when I said I wanted to see him. I always got the feeling that he totally cooled off with me after we graduated middle school, and I don’t even know why,” he huffed, seemingly forgetting that he was trying on clothes. “We were besties! We even ate from each other’s lunchboxes!”

“O-okay, I got it,” Makoto acquiesced, putting down his phone, but not before trying to bribe Haru with promise of a free dinner if he just turned up and showed his face.

 

*

 

The weather was so good they could afford to walk for hours without needing to hide from the cold somewhere indoors. It had been freezing the week before – even snowing hard enough a couple of days to cause minor traffic jams in parts of the city – but that day it was so warm, so much such that Makoto even considered taking off his windbreaker and walking around in his sweater just to enjoy the mild coolness. 

“Okay, actually, I’m beat,” Kisumi groaned. “I overestimated my own stamina! Could we take a break, Makoto?”

It was fast approaching teatime, so they headed to a juice bar. Kisumi ordered a cocktail of orange and pineapple juice, and Makoto an avocado milkshake. Kisumi took some time to people-watch as the busy afternoon crowd milled around them. Makoto was just glad to get some rest.

“I gotta say,” Kisumi began, “Tokyo’s really not that much different from Osaka! It’s just what I expected from looking at the pictures. Except, well, people here all seem that much busier! Like, they’re walking so quickly they’re not taking time to look at their surroundings at all. It’s a pity. Tokyo’s a lovely place.”

“Well, that’s just how the people here are, I think,” Makoto pondered. “It definitely took a little getting used to when I first moved here! Especially since it gets crowded easily.”

“Yeah, that was me with Osaka too. But I got used to it pretty quickly, I have to say. Kind of makes you think of how Iwatobi’s such a quiet place, isn’t it?” Kisumi asked. He turned to regard Makoto curiously and continued, “Hey, Makoto, will you ever be going back?”

“Sure! I’ll be going back for a couple days for New Year’s.”

“Naw, I mean,” Kisumi waved his hand, “after you graduate.”

Makoto sipped slowly from his cup and gave it some thought. The issue had crossed his mind before, but he hadn’t really given it serious consideration, and he hadn’t brought it up with his parents either. After all, he’d only been to Tokyo for about half a year. But if he really had to give an answer, he knew intuitively that he would much rather seize the opportunities that presented themselves to him in the city, at least when he was still young.

“I haven’t really thought about it carefully,” he said slowly. “What about you, Kisumi?”

“Hmm, I don’t know either, that’s why I asked you the question,” Kisumi said, twirling his straw. “I mean, I’m not doing anything special in particular, but when I think about how Rin’s in Australia and Haru’s here and they’re both aiming for the Olympics – that really makes me want to do something worthwhile too! And Makoto – you want to become a qualified swimming instructor, don’t you?”

“It’s really nothing much,” Makoto replied, suddenly feeling self-conscious about the topic, especially when it was brought up in the same vein as Rin and Haru’s much loftier ambitions. He hadn’t really discussed his aspirations much with anybody other than his parents and perhaps Coach Sasabe, back when he was helping out at Iwatobi Swim Club, not even Haru, who often told him to just do what he felt like doing.

“Maybe I should become a basketball coach, then?”

“You really shouldn’t decide things like that on a whim, Kisumi!”

“Really?” Kisumi laughed without any hint of irony. “But you know, when I think about how serious you were when you were standing in at the swim club back home and how patient you were with the kids, it really made me see you in a different light. By the way, do you know that Hayato’s been doing really well at swim club? Mom and Dad told me he’s learned butterfly recently. I think he’d still have a bit of difficulty if he hadn’t met you at the club back then. This sort of thing comes so naturally to you, I think I’m almost jealous!”

 

*

 

For dinner Makoto suggested that they go to a very affordable teishoku restaurant, one of his favourites, just some way down from his apartment. Kisumi had said that he would bring the spoils of their labour back to his hotel by himself, turning down Makoto’s offers to travel back to Shinjuku with him so profusely that Makoto was forced to back down eventually, so having dinner in his neighbourhood more or less worked out.

He was walking along the pavement rather absentmindedly in their post-shopping daze when he bumped into Kisumi, who seemed to have stopped in his tracks. “What’s the matter?” he asked, looking up, then, noticing what Kisumi was looking at – or rather, who – and exclaimed, “Ah! Haru, you came after all!”

“Haru, I really wasn’t expecting to see you! I thought Makoto said you were busy! How have you been?” Kisumi asked, dropping his bags so that he could give Haru what seemed like a welcome hug, but Haru dodged it expertly.

“Keep your promise, Makoto,” he said. There was clearly only one thing on his mind as he stalked into the restaurant ahead of them and asked for a table.

“Promise?” Kisumi wondered.

“Well, I did say that I’d buy him dinner if he showed up,” Makoto explained, smiling. “I thought it would be livelier if we had more people around!”

“You really didn’t have to!”

“Are you both coming in or not, or am I going to have to eat on your behalf as well?” Haru interrupted, sticking his head out of the entrance. “Hurry up, I’ve already been waiting for fifteen minutes.”

“We’re coming,” Makoto called, and Haru disappeared into the place once again. He turned to Kisumi, who was hauling up his shopping bags once again. “Shall we go?”

“Sure!” Kisumi beamed up at him, then paused, as if an idea had come suddenly to him. “Hey, Makoto. Didn’t we talk about going to the Tokyo Skytree tomorrow? Now that I think about it, won’t you let me buy us a pair of tickets?”

**Author's Note:**

> kyoani_flute_soundtrack.mp3
> 
> i mean like after writing this i felt like it was a pity that i never actually wrote the part about their date at tokyo skytree, but you can certainly imagine them queueing up and taking turns to look out of the binoculars which you have to rent for a 50 yen coin. THERE, i just gave you the visual.


End file.
